Vice-President to address SPA third convocation today

Amaravati: School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) at Vijayawada is organising its third convocation on Thursday. Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu will take part in the convocation as the chief guest. He will also inaugurate the integrated campus which became operational from July 2018. The school is offering two undergraduate programmes, five postgraduate programmes and doctoral programmes.

The third convocation is going to confer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees to 288 students along with gold medals, informed Director, Prof Minakshi Jain, SPA, Vijayawada.

This is one of the three SPAs in the country established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, as an institution of national importance in the field of Architecture and Planning.

School of Planning and Architecture Vijayawada, even though a young Institute, has grown steadily and successfully building its rightful image as a hub of the highest standards of education and research in architecture and planning across the nation and beyond, she explained.

R Subhrahmanyam, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and the Chairperson Board of Governors of SPA Vijayawada, Brindya Somaya, an internationally acclaimed architect and conservationist, have taken keen interest in the growth of the institution to see it as a full-fledged integrated campus, she added.

The students are encouraged to discover and innovate. Industry interaction and research ecosystem are focussed at SPA. SPA Vijayawada joined hands with leading institutes and organisations of the world and entered into Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with several reputed National, International institutions and organisations like - University of Melbourne, Australia; Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway; Hafencity University, Germany; University of Cologne, Germany; University of Florence, Italy and Krems University, Austria.

The school has been undertaking several research projects with government, industry and international research think tanks. SPAV won several accolades on various platforms across the country. Architecture students secured fourth position nationally as per ranking released by the National Association of Students of Architecture (NASA) in 2018.

Every programme offered in SPA Vijayawada is tailored to match the expectations of the profession to the maximum extent. Each programme’s syllabus has been carefully crafted and periodically updated in tandem with industry needs, she informed.

The School of Planning and Architecture Vijayawada shifted its activities to its permanent campus recently in June 2018, which is located in the heart of Vijayawada city along the ITI road, extending to around 9.66 acres. The campus also has an additional 2.66 acres land with green cover, which is to be developed as an outdoor sports facility.